A place for people new to Canada and the city where they can find several types of support has reopened in the neighbourhood it had left just a year ago. The Edmonton Newcomer Centre formally unveiled the new Welcome Centre for Immigrants on Thursday at a location just north of Mill Woods Town Centre. The Welcome Centre had been a fixture in the southeast Edmonton neighbourhood for close to 20 years in its longtime home at Millbourne Mall before it closed its doors last March due to operational restructuring. The new Welcome Centre is located at Suite 304, 6203 28 Ave. NW in the Mill Woods Town Centre Professional Building. The Edmonton Newcomer Centre, which rebranded from its original Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers moniker two years ago, has been serving its community since the early 1980s with language training, settlement services, help finding work and mental-health support to immigrants and newcomers. Sam Juru, the Newcomer Centre’s executive director, said his organization heard from the community soon after closing the Millbourne location that there was a need for it to return to the south side. The Newcomer Centre offers similar services downtown and on the north side. He said the new location is very accessible, pointing out the Valley Line LRT and bus service close to the new Welcome Centre. “We are in close proximity to a lot of communities, and also accessibility with communities who are coming from outside of the south,” Juru told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday. Keren Tang, the city councillor for the area in which the new Welcome Centre for Immigrants has opened, said the services provided by it are invaluable to people new to the city and the country. “I continue to hear from constituents who are new to the city, who are new to the country, that they don’t know how to navigate,” Tang, who represents Ward Karhiio, told CTV News Edmonton. “I look forward to seeing how this location will provide more focused service to these community members. Some of the needs in the immigrant community aren’t going to go away. Community organizations like the Newcomers Centre always will need to be continued supporters.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall
